People’s choice: Fifty years of folk

With the 50th National Folk Festival this year, we look at the appeal of a genre that eschews fashion for longevity.
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Initially an oral tradition, Australian folk music has its origins in the early convict settlement of Australia – though naturally there is a far older tradition of songs and stories, handed down for thousands of years among Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders prior to the European invasion.

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Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts